Matchmaking
by lkc159
Summary: Pre-26. Cassie and Jake have been dancing around each other for a few years. Rachel finds it sweet, but frustrating and completely idiotic. Marco thinks it's hilarious, but is getting fed up. Watch two young hearts on their journey to find each other... and remember that things may not always be as they seem. Rated T for safeT. :) Will be AU - not very much though. Now COMPLETE!
1. Try Me

Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs. I wish I did.

A/N #1: This little plot bunny came up to me one night right before I went to sleep. It kept me up for the next 30 minutes before I managed to unravel it, plan it out and subdue it :P I originally planned to keep this as a 3000 word-ish oneshot - I'm about halfway done. But then I decided that the flow would be much better if I broke it up into separate chapters (say, 3 or 4). So this is now part 1 of a 3 part story. Short, I know, but I really think breaking it up is a much better idea.

A/N #2: For those of you asking... I haven't abandoned Marco's Not-To-Do List (How could I?!). Chapter 4's about halfway done right now. However, I kind of wrote myself into a corner for a while there, and now that I got myself out of the corner I got myself into a little mental block :( So I'm taking time off it for the time being. Hopefully inspiration comes back soon.

* * *

My name is Marco.

Last name?

Sorry, I don't do last names. But if you really want to know, people call me… Marco the Magnificent. Or magnanimous. Some even say mesmerizing.

Kinda has a nice ring to it. Marco the mesmerizing.

"Hey, Marco the mindless! Stop with the internal monologue already!"

That's Jake, my best friend since like, forever. We've done everything together for quite literally almost our entire lives, we know things about each other that no one else does, we can almost tell what the other is thinking, and he's always been there for me as I have for him. You could say we have a very steady bromance going on.

Which is why I've seized this chance to do something for my best friend and become…

Marco the Matchmaker.

"Oh come ON, Jake, we all know you're head-over-heels in love with Cassie. I know it, Rachel knows it, Tobias knows it, even our resident alien from a galaxy far, far away can see it! Just admit it to her, propose to her, promise to marry her in 3 years time, anything! Just get it over with already!"

I couldn't believe it. Jake, the quintessential leader who could take on thousands of Taxxons, hundreds of Hork-Bajir and even dared to face down Visser Three (albeit with us by his side) was turned into a little shivering ball of terror by the mere thought of confessing his feelings to the love of his life.

Jake looked down at the floor and whispered something unintelligible.

"You'll have to be louder Jake, I don't speak mouse. What happened to the tiger inside of you?"

"He went into hiding," Jake mumbled.

"Come on, dude! You're the General Sherman of our little band of warriors up against odds of which no one has ever seen. How on earth could this ONE LITTLE THING get your panties in such a twist?!"

"What if Cassie doesn't think of me that way? What if she's not ready?" he asked softly.

"Is THAT it? IS that IT?! Is that ALL that's stopping you from asking her out? YOU are driving me CRAY-ZY! Even that bimbo what's-her-name from school knows it! Anyone can tell she's been dying to be held in your big, strong arms and to hear you propose to her in the most romantic fashion possible!"

Jake blushed but looked a little more positive about that prospect.

"And then she'll run her hands across your warm, manly, chest and caress your lithe, supple body as she slowly removes your…"

"Marco!" I smirked as Jake paled. "Stop making your mental porn from the two of us. It's not funny."

"How does the incorruptible Saint Jake know what porn is? Been doing some… research in private?" I waggled my eyebrows at him. "Or, should I say… research on privates?"

"Marco!"

I leered at him. "Looking to put theory into practice?"

"MARCO!"

A slight pause ensued as we just stared at each other.

"What if I can't keep her happy? What if I just can't keep her?" Jake finally said after a few minutes of introspection.

"Then you learn how not to make the same mistake again, prostrate yourself before her and beg and plead for her to take you back. Come on! How bad can it be?! And if you don't try, the rest of us will have to keep watching the two of you make lovesick puppy eyes at each other when you think the other's not looking. And it's getting to be really irritating." I handed the phone to him.

"What?" Jake stared at the phone in my hand, nonplussed.

"Call her now. Talk. Plan a date or something, it doesn't matter which. Just do something."

"Do I have to?"

"I could always call her right now and ask her out on a date for you…"

"You wouldn't dare."

I punched in the first three digits of Cassie's phone (which, contrary to popular belief, are not one-two-three). "Do I actually have to help you ask her out on a date? Are you that pathetic?"

Cue Jake's defeated gaze.

"So you'll do it yourself?"

Now the face of resignation.

"Alright, fantastic," I said as I handed the phone to him. Jake grabbed it and completed the call.

"Hello, Cassie?" A pause. "I was wondering... uh… if could we meet up… outside the barn? Like… uh… in about 20 minutes?" Another pause. "Alright, that's great. Um… see you soon?" He ended off the conversation with a squeak and put down the phone a little too quickly, as if he couldn't believe what he'd just done.

I raised my eyebrows. "Not too bad. Done with just the barest hint of you about to wet your pants."

Jake aimed a kick at my foot, which I dodged.

"Come on, lover boy. We have an engagement to plan."

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Please review! :D


	2. Help Me

Disclaimer: I want the Animorphs, but KA wouldn't give them to me. KA is a meanie *sniffles*

Heh, just kidding.

Hmm. This looks like it's gonna end up at around 5 chapters now.

* * *

My name is Rachel.

And I am very, VERY frustrated. Don't piss me off.

You may want to ask why. Don't. Just… don't.

"Oh come ON, Cass, we all know you're head-over-heels in love with Jake. I know it, Tobias knows it, Ax, who, by the way, is not a human, knows it, even that insensitive, annoying little moron with a brain of dead flies and bits of fluff can see it! Just admit it and propose to him already!"

It was a good idea, I'll admit. The part that made me mad was that Marco, of all people, had come up with it. The part that made me madder was that I wasn't the one who thought about it.

The plan was so elegant in its simplicity. Marco would grab Jake, force him to admit that he loved Cassie, and get Jake to set up a meeting with Cassie so they could both come clean. I would talk Cassie into actually staying long enough with Jake for him to admit to having always loved her, to ask for her to be his girlfriend, and to not be locked in a cycle of denial with Cassie for the rest of his life.

Hopefully, this would go down better than that last time when Marco locked both of them in that tiny closet just to "see what would happen". I still have no idea how he managed to do it. The closet was barely large enough to fit both of them in. I think he might have accidentally traumatized them then – they both came out and didn't even dare to look at each other for the next one or two days.

Anyway, we all can tell that my cousin's in love with Cassie. I don't know what the hell he's waiting for to propose, or at least set up a date. Or maybe he's waiting for HER to make the first move. Now, I don't know about you, but seriously, a guy who waits for his girl to ask to ask him to be her boyfriend? That's just sad. A guy who won't even make the first move or ask his girl out on a date, even ONCE? Because he doesn't want to, or because he's scared, or for some other unfathomable reason that involves "stare-at-the-person-I-love-but-look-away-when-she-sees-me-and-pretend-I-wasn't-staring" contests? That's what you call pathetic.

I said it. Jake is a great leader, he's a good man manager, he's a great friend. He can face death every day, and as leader of our six-man band he can take all kinds of crazy stress no one else ever has to deal with. But he's pathetic. With a capital P. Not my type. The two of them are perfect for each other, though. Somehow, watching them dance around each other manages to be really sweet, and yet at the same time, unbelievably frustrating and completely idiotic.

Anyway, there's a sale on at The Gap today and it's one day only, so Cassie had better agree to this thing quickly or there will be hell to pay.

"I mean, you'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not realize that Jake's so deeply in love with you. You've didn't see him in his 'Cassie withdrawal' mode when you were out gallivanting in the forest with Aftran."

"Really? What did he do?"

"He was just this total zombie that spent every single waking hour looking for you. We helped, but I don't think he got himself even a single hour of rest because he refused to rest. Thankfully we managed to find you when we found you, otherwise he might just have collapsed from fatigue. Oh, and the only thing he was capable of saying was 'I have to FIND HER'."

Just then, the phone rang. Cassie picked it up.

"Hello, Cassie?"

What's this? Jake was already calling? My estimation of Marco went up just a tiny little bit.

"Yeah?"

I couldn't hear everything that was said, but basically, Jake just asked to meet Cassie at the barn. It's not a date, but it's a start, I suppose. And Jake actually SQUEAKED like a little mouse right before he put down the phone! I quite literally spent the next few minutes laughing and out of breath.

I TOLD you my cousin was pathetic.

Cassie's face was cycling through plenty of emotions, foremost of which were worry and indecision. "What if he doesn't actually like me and I'm mistaken about him? What if he says no? What if– I don't think I'm ready to go up to him and talk to him about this yet…" she was already biting her lips out of nervousness.

I just sighed. Getting to that sale in time to still get good deals would apparently require me to be much more active in this. "You are utterly hopeless, you know that? Never mind. Just listen to me. If you're so worried about what's going to happen, this is what we'll do…"

* * *

Thank you very much for bothering to read this, and please review! Reviews make my day.

Well, maybe not the whole day, but the next few hours at least :D


	3. Save Me

A/N: I apologize beforehand. This chapter doesn't really have anything meaty. It's kinda like... exposition with very little plot that just gives a deeper insight into the whole thing and sets up C4 and C5 :/ Should be read together with C4 to run more smoothly overall. I'm uploading this first though so I'll feel more obliged to finish C4 quickly :/ I'm sorry T_T

This story will only be 5 chapters long, which means to say, not very long at all. C4 is far from complete, while C5 is almost done. I have my ending in mind... now I need to link them nicely. I think I'll be done within the next week or so. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading :)

* * *

About 10 minutes later, Jake and I landed in the area of overgrown grass near Cassie's barn. For those last 10 minutes, I was alternately assaulted by Jake's fears and insecurities, along with moments of interrupted silence while Jake thought of more fears and insecurities for me to talk him out of.

Doesn't seem to have worked, though. Dude was still worried out of his mind.

{Jake, I don't even know what the hell's wrong with you. You're not usually this nervous around Cassie. Well, unless we're all teasing you about it.}

{There's a huge difference, you know?} Jake shot back. {Between just talking with a friend knowing your friendship goes deeper, and actually asking her out? Being a friend is also completely different from being a boyfriend!}

{How much difference can there be? You're just asking her to be your girlfriend! It's not as if you're proposing marriage… though that would certainly be on your cards.}

{Forget it! There's no way you would under-} Jake's thought speech was cut off as he became more human than bird.

I myself fell silent as I focused on my morph back to human. If Jake would still be this frazzled and distracted by the time of the meeting, what would be the point of them meeting? I got my Plan B ready, just in case.

I finished my morph and looked at Jake to get an idea of how nervous he was.

"Marco, I really think I'm seriously not ready for this…" Jake was almost hyperventilating by now.

"Damn it, Jake, you're a completely hopeless wuss, you know that?"

Sigh. Time for Plan B.

"Since we're already here and you're apparently too terrified to ask her out, let's do this instead. Let me ask her out on your behalf."

"That'd be even worse! Can you imagine how pathetic I'd look?!"

"Exactly like how you look now," I snorted. "Calm down and listen, man. I'll ask her out on your behalf – but I'll be doing so morphed as you."

Thankful for the silence that followed, I outlined my general idea to Jake. "Look, the idea here is to help you get Cassie go out with you. You won't do it yourself for some strange reason, and you don't want to look pathetic in front of the girl of your dreams by getting me to do it for you – and let's face it, that would really make you look like a chicken… which I still think you are, by the way. Morphing you is the only way to do it. You'll stay out of sight to the side of the barn, where you'll be able to hear us pretty well."

I could see Jake thrashing out the idea in his head as he stopped looking so crazed. I could tell he preferred this idea – he would know what Cassie truly felt about him, and he wouldn't have to deal with his emotions betraying him and all that while in front of her. And of course, the best part was that no one would know.

It probably helped that it wouldn't be him making a fool of himself in front of me, but whatever.

"Yeah, I suppose that could work," Jake admitted, relieved. "We should do that."

"'We'?"

"I mean, help me do it, please?"

"Oh, the things I do for you, Jake."

So I acquired him and watched as the dreamy and drifty look that signified the acquiring trance made its way across his face. And at the end of it, I spoke these words of wisdom to him:

"Just this once, Mashter Whayne. Just this once." And I started to morph into my best friend.

Now, morphing is never logical. When morphing into animals, you can have an arm or two suddenly appearing, bones suddenly disappearing, every other combination you can think of and even more you don't ever want to see. Every morph seems to go about in different ways, and every morph is strange. However, this morph was strange based solely on how relatively normal everything felt, and how nothing much really disappeared or shifted places.

I noticed the ground getting further and further away from me the more I morphed. I noticed my hair grow longer and come down nearly over my eyes. My fingers thinned and elongated and my arms became longer and more muscular. My chest was growing larger and broader, and my whole body took on a much more solid form overall. A minute later, the changes finished, and there I stood, a perfect copy of our Fearful – I mean, Fearless Leader.

I also noticed one other particularly significant change that seemed to explain the situation…

"Hey, Jake!" I whispered, noting that Jake's voice happened to be rather deeper than my own. "I know why you're such a wuss now. You seem to be having a tiny little problem down here!"

"Screw you!"

"With this length? I don't think so!"

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I couldn't help but put that last joke in :) Review please!


	4. Trust Me

Disclaimer: I still want the Animorphs. :(

Chapter Notes:

_Marco's thoughts._

_{Marco's thoughts directed at the Jake morph.} _

_{Jake morph's thoughts.}_

{Regular thought-speech.}

* * *

Being in Jake's body was… a totally different experience. For one, there was no overwhelming sense of fear, hunger, or anything else, specifically, that you'd normally get with an animal, predator or prey. The fight or flight tendency was still there, but in this environment I hardly noticed it. There was just a slight sense of a separate head in there with me with its own desires and thoughts. I caught something about the Jake mind's general overprotectiveness, but that was about it. This would be an easy morph to control.

"Alright, I think I'm ready."

"Seeing a carbon copy of myself walking around is just too strange."

"You already watched Ax moving around as yourself."

"That was different! I always knew it was him, because he was playing with sounds and because he was so un-human. You're just about exactly like me!"

"Except that I'm smarter, have more guts and have a better sense of humour. It's the new and improved Jake 2.0! It's a pity my looks couldn't have come over as well."

"Yeah, or she'll definitely be looking for someone else instead."

"Hey Jake? Your brain just suggested that I should give Cassie a striptease. Should I show her exactly what she's getting… or not?" That should shut him up.

Jake choked, blanched and glared at me, outraged.

"Yeah, you're right. Better not, or she'll be sorely disappointed by what she doesn't see," I teased mercilessly.

Jake sent me a look that threatened death by the worst kind of torture imaginable if I ever did anything of the sort. Not that I really cared. Jake really has nothing over me, and even if he did he wouldn't use it anyway… probably.

"You're no fun at all. I promise to keep things chaste and quiet. No overly exuberant displays of affection, no inappropriate touching and no surprises within the next 9 months. Enough for you?" Jake just nodded resignedly. I think he finally realized nothing he said was going to shut me up. Not that I'd ever let him live this down… between us, anyway.

"Wish me luck, for the sake of your love life!" And what that parting shot, I walked toward the barn, leaving Jake to his own devices.

* * *

The first thing I noticed as I entered was Cassie bending over what looked like a small rat and stroking its little head. Must have been some almost-roadkill she found and was nursing back to full health_._

Almost-roadkill. Rat. Why in the world? Seriously? Some things should just be ignored. Let nature take its course, and all that. Like animals that came too close to being highway pancakes. I mean, I like cute animals as much as the next person. Cats. Dogs, though Homer can be nearly as irritating as my math teacher when he wants to be. Skunks, even. The four little kits we took care of were almost as cute as I am. But a rat? A sewer-scurrying, plague-carrying, shriek-inducing, rat with a face even a mother couldn't come to love? Nuh-uh. No way. I'm sorry. A rat has absolutely no redeeming qualities.

Hmm. Maybe that's why she settled for Jake. And why Rachel's her best friend.

Anyway. Time to get on with the programme.

"Uh… hi, Cassie," I started tentatively. _Hmm. Now comes the hard part. Jake's too much of a wuss to ever say things out straight._

Cassie started and nearly dropped the rat as the turned around. "Oh! Jake, it's you. You startled me."

_{She's very attractive__,}_ Jake's mind suddenly activated.

_{Shut up and let me work my magic.}_

Dismissing Jake's primitive mind, I replied, "Sorry about that. So, I assume Rachel forced you into this meeting, huh?" I asked anxiously, pondering my next move. I needed to pull this one off convincingly, or it would really be a disaster. Or at the very least, start 10 years of awkwardness between our resident lovebirds.

Time to get to work.

"Yeah," Cassie hesitantly said. "She was quite adamant, really… anyway… how'd you know about Rachel? Marco pushed you into this meeting?" Cassie bit her lip. She looked like she was half embarrassed to death and half dying to be somewhere else besides here in the barn with me… I mean, Jake.

Embarrassing hormonal lovebirds with their stupid UST.

"He did. I still wonder why he's taking such an interest…" _Because you deserve each other, you're dancing around each other, and if I don't give Jake a push he'll never get there, and we'll just be staring at you staring at each other staring at each other staring at each other. _"Anyway, uh… now we're here I guess we'd better talk about… you know?" I trailed off and looked at Cassie, only to notice her staring at me, deep in thought.

_{__Her eyes have those pretty little flecks of gold in them_.} Jake's brain oh-so-helpfully supplied.

_{Thank you for that very pointless comment.}_

...

Idiot.

"You know, Cassie," I started, trying to slowly approach the topic. "Over the last few missions… I've always felt… there's something between us. How we are around each other, how we signal each other to stay safe before every mission… the exuberance that just comes to me once I find out that we come out okay on the other side of the battle… and I'm guessing you feel that too…"

Cassie looked, for the lack of a better word, stunned. Like she didn't actually believe I… no, _Jake_, of all people, would be initiating this conversation with her. "Of course I do," Cassie sighed, after a moment of heavy silence. "It's been weighing on my mind ever since the time in the woods I spent with Aftran." Cassie looked at me with what could vaguely be described as longing.

Before I could think of how to continue the conversation, Cassie continued with, "Do you know how I've been feeling after every mission? How afraid I am that when we enter the next one, we might not come out and meet each other again? How afraid I am that once the mission ends, I might not be able to see you again?" All said with a pleading, yet fiery passion I never really associated Cassie with. Well, except when she decided to ream me out when I was playing with one of the smaller animals in the barn (I wasn't torturing it. I swear. Whatever you've heard from her, it's all lies.)

Now it was my turn to be stunned. I never guessed that Cassie felt so strongly about Jake. This was new. Thankfully, it also made my job easier.

{_She looks so beautiful and passionate even when she's worked up._}

Well, not that it was exactly easy to begin with when I had Wussy's brain hanging out in the corner of my mind making really pathetic comments. I should have known that I still wouldn't have escaped from my best friend's Cassie-addled brain.

Strongly resisting the urge to point out that Cassie was the one who foolishly endangered her life on a possibility so minute it would make jumping off the Yeerk mother ship, falling to Earth and hoping to survive seem like a sane idea, I replied, "That whole fiasco with Aftran really opened my eyes, Cassie. I missed you a lot during that period. I was lost."

Cassie almost giggled. "I know. Rachel told me about how you couldn't eat or sleep and spent entire days as this total zombie. You're so sweet, Jake," said Cassie in an almost perfect description of Jake during the time she went missing. Her expression turned more serious then, as she reached for my face. "Like I said… I think about you all the time. And I think… that I want to be able to spend more time together with you. Not with anyone else. Not with the Animorphs. You and only you, Jake."

_{I love the way she calls out my name.__} _

_{Is that all you can think of?! Jeez, you're only a morph of my best friend and yet you're still idiotically infatuated with her…!}_

There was only one thing left to do, really. That I could think of, anyway.

"Cassie, will you be my girlfriend?"

Cassie's apprehensive face melted into a brilliant smile that told me everything I had already known about the way she felt about Jake. Seriously, Jake had nothing to worry about.

"I thought you'd never ask," Cassie breathed as she leaned into me and gazed up into my eyes.

{_Her hair smells really nice and fresh._}

My brain froze as we got closer and closer…

_{Oh no what do I do whatdoidothisiswrongwe'regettingtooclose!}_

_{Her face looks even more radiant up close__,_} Jake's brain dreamily provided, still lost in its Cassie fantasyland.

_{You're not helping, you nitwit!}_

I could see the loving tenderness in her eyes…

I could feel her breath on my face…

I could…

{_I could kiss her!_}

_{I… don't…want…}_

And that was when some primal, less hormonally retrained, and more idiotic part of Jake's mind managed to seize control.

Jake tilted my head forward.

Our lips met.

…

_{Whoa, this is so much more amazing than I thought possible.}_

_{I agree!} _Some traitorous part of my mind thought.

_Shut up! This isn't right, _my conscience replied.

_Oh, YOU shut up and let me enjoy this moment._

_You're kissing your best friend's girlfriend, I hope you realize that? _

_So?_

…

_You did NOT just think that. Jake is so going to kill you when he finds out_. _He will tell Cassie. She will tell Rachel. And Rachel will stomp you into a tortilla._

_So I won't tell him. And what the hell do you mean "you"? We're the same person!_

_Never mind. You'd better just stop now. Jake morph is getting some wild ideas._

_Alright, alright, _I mentally grumbled to myself. Jake would kill me if I let this get any further… even if it was a shadow of Jake that was actually doing what I was doing. I managed to overpower the Jake brain was actively trying to sabotage me and getting stupid ideas about wanting to get some more action that was way out of my current job description.

As I broke the kiss as gently as possible, fighting against the morph all the way, I thought I saw something like triumph flash in Cassie's eyes. But in a split second, the look was gone and was replaced by Cassie gazing tenderly up at me as I valiantly tried to remember that this was Cassie that I just kissed.

Cassie.

JAKE'S girlfriend.

My BEST FRIEND's girlfriend.

My best friend's GIRLFRIEND.

Oh God, WHAT DID I JUST DO?!

"Uh, I think… uh…" I stammered, at a loss for words. I needed to get away. This was quite a LOT more than I bargained for. _Quick, think of something! Anything to take my mind off what I just did!_ Casting a glance at the entrance of the barn, I managed to say, "I should be going… can we meet again… uh… tomorrow instead? I mean… if that's all right with you?" _Oh look. A cute little squirrel. Focus on it. Ignore Cassie. Plain is good. Plain is normal. Plain is…_

_{__A person with the prettiest eyes I've ever seen.__}_

_{SHUT UP!}_

"Tomorrow, then? Back here?" Cassie enquired softly. Her face, on the other hand, was a mixture of emotions. Excited… animated… and a little scared? _Sense of normalcy, Marco. Calm down. Look at the squirrel. Not at her face. Just the squirrel. Ignore her._

A dazed and amazed voice broke through my thoughts._ {__I kissed her.__}_

_{OH FOR THE LOVE OF…!}_

"Uh… yeah, that would be great. Same time?" I said, averting my eyes from Cassie and continuing to glare at the squirrel, as if it was the poor squirrel's fault that the Jake mind was so uncontrollable. It almost made me feel better… until I realized that the squirrel looked like it was glaring right back at me.

Whoa. Imagination running away there.

"I'll be waiting."

"Alright, then." And I got out of there as fast as I could without making it seem like I was running away, trying my best to ignore the not-so-poor squirrel that was most definitely scampering as fast as it could toward me.

{MARCO!}

_HELLLLLP!_

* * *

**A/N: Hi again, people!**

**I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update! In my defense, I've just came back from a 3 week holiday where everything like this slipped of my mind :) And again, as with the Not to Do List 3, this chapter just refused to come out right. I've tried to salvage it and ended up rewriting huge chunks of it at least three times, but now I'm thinking that I'm just bad at writing romance/emotions. Well, currently, anyway. **

**And coming up is the final chapter, Chapter 5 (titled "Forgive Me") of my first completed story! Haha I know it doesn't seem like much of a major milestone, but it represents something I've gone through with all the way to the end, even if small. It's just seeing minor changes to several issues after the changes I made to this chapter.**

**After the whole thing where I promised a chapter "within the next week or so", I don't think I can promise anything more regarding my timing when it comes to stories. But please just stay tuned... Chapter 5 is on the way!**

**Finally... review! Anything I could have done better? Any character OOC-ness? Anything you think I've missed out or gotten wrong? Drop me a note and I'll explain and/or try to fix it, if possible!**

**Other notes:**

**I've had some reminders that the whole Jake "I have to find her" zombie thing happened when Cassie went Down Under for a period of time and had happy fun times together with the guys in the desert. While that's certainly true, I feel that Jake has a tendency to un-romanticize things, and Jake's entire part in #19 was under-emphasized - we just got one chapter on him, and KA didn't look at him through another person's viewpoint then. I know they weren't exactly a couple then as their first kiss was a little later, but I'd think he felt the same way both times Cassie went missing. **


	5. Forgive Me

Disclaimer: I'm just building Jake and Cassie-esque structures in Ms. Applegate's sandbox.

_Jake's thoughts._

* * *

"Hi, Cassie."

"Hi, Jake."

Silence.

I cast my mind around for a topic I could talk about without stammering like an idiot.

"I remember Marco got really pushy about us meeting up yesterday."

"So did Rachel."

"I'm glad that it happened. You know, if it weren't for those two, we wouldn't be even meeting up." _Calm down, Jake. She doesn't know it was Marco._

"That's true. It looks like we owe them quite a bit."

"I suppose we do have to thank them for that." _And for kissing you before I did. Stupid idiot I call a best friend._

"You know, Jake, before we met up yesterday… I had always felt that there was something to our relationship…"

"So did I, Cassie..."

"…but I didn't know you felt that deeply for me. As much as I did for you."

I gazed into her a fierce yet tender emotion that I rarely ever saw in her face – the one which signified that we cared for each other, that we wanted, no, _needed _each other to be safe. The one which we reserved for each other, and each other only.

Of course I cared for her. I more than cared for her.

I gently smiled at her. "Cassie, ever since I've known you, I've come to realize that you're one of the most amazing people I know. Your ability to care and empathize for everyone inspires me, your patience and kindness astound me – and I find myself admiring the person you are more and more each day. And the answer as to whether I cared for you – "

I tenderly looked into her stunning, emotion-laced light brown eyes. Eyes that reflected a particular quietness, but also inner strength and resilience – eyes in which it would be so easy to lose myself in –

"I always have."

As I thought about what this meant to me, what Cassie meant to me, my mind, my heart and my soul, the emotions she stirred in me, the extent to which I cared about her, and what I would do just to protect her and keep her by my side, I followed it up with the only three words that I felt were appropriate to our situation –

"I always will."

And as she leaned towards me as I leaned towards her, my lips met hers for the very first time. And my brain just about melted with the fact that this was the first kiss I'd ever shared with Cassie. Our first kiss.

It was a truly special moment. One I would keep in my memory and treasure forever.

...

...

It was only ruined by the realization that to Cassie, this was her second kiss with me, not her first.

And as our lips parted, I plucked up the courage to admit to Cassie that I, along with Marco, had deceived her, the decision to have done so weighing heavily on my mind.

If I didn't do it now, I would never be able to.

"You know… I've got something else to confess that's been weighing on my mind for some time now. Since we met up at the barn the other day."

Cassie looked hesitant and a little embarrassed. "Actually… I have something to say about that day too."

"You first?" I said, glad for any reprieve that I had to not say what I had to.

"I think maybe you should go first… you did say it first, after all."

Shoot. So much for avoiding what I had to do. And I prepared to say goodbye to my first crush… the first time I had cared for someone else to such an extent… as I talked myself into revealing the secret.

Sometimes I hate myself for being an honourable and responsible idiot. It looked like this would definitely be one of those times.

"I wasn't the one you kissed at the barn last week. It was Marco."

I didn't dare to look Cassie in the eyes for fear of the narrowed-eyes dislike that would surely be taking hold, and chose instead to focus on the hay we were seating on.

"Jake."

"I was too afraid. I thought that maybe you also didn't feel as deeply for me as I did about you. And unlike you, I was apparently too much of a coward to face my fears head on and asked Marco to take my place to see how you felt before making a move," I said bitterly, disgusted at myself for my own lack of courage.

"Jake."

I ploughed on. "Cassie, I'm very sorry for misleading you so. I'll understand I you think I was being unforgivably stupid and if you no longer–"

Just then, I felt her fingers on my lips, and her hand lifting up my face so that my eyes would meet hers instead of trying to burn a hole in the floor of the barn. Preparing to see a look on her face such as revulsion or even disgust, I met her eyes and saw… amusement?

"Jake, Marco didn't kiss me in the barn the other day."

_What?_ My brain froze. What was that I saw yesterday, then?

"I was like you. I didn't know how you felt about me either. I was afraid of rejection too, and I couldn't pluck up my own courage in order to meet you either. So, well… Rachel took my place instead."

As realization dawned, and as Cassie reached to me once more and embraced me, the only thoughts that came to my mind was how much I loved her, and that to each other, between us, all had been forgiven.

It felt like an eternity later when we next parted. An eternity that I would want to spend forever re-living.

"Are we going to tell Marco and Rachel what really happened yesterday?" Cassie whispered.

We stared at each other, then abruptly cracked up with laughter at the same time.

"I didn't think so."

...

END

* * *

**A/N: And that's it! This is the conclusion of my first completed fanfic (milestone!)**

**I know it's not great or fantastic, and I might be going around to correct or add several things here and there. But I'd like to think it's not bad, and if you agree, please feel free to drop a review! If you don't, also drop a review and tell me what I could have done better! **

**For starters, did you enjoy reading it? Were the characters in character? Did I manage to get the romance-y bits down? Was the twist too obvious? Etc, etc, etc. **

**Once again, t****hank you all very much!**

P.S:  
Oh, and for the guest who wanted Ax to make an appearance...

{That's all, folks!}

*sighs* "... you've been watching too much Looney Tunes, Ax."


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